


First Blood

by glorious_spoon



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, Sparring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:33:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27373507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glorious_spoon/pseuds/glorious_spoon
Summary: The thing is, Nile knows she’s being baited. Andy isn’t particularly subtle, never has been. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’twork.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Nile Freeman
Comments: 11
Kudos: 99





	First Blood

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RenLuthor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RenLuthor/gifts).



> For a Tumblr prompt from **RennyWilson** , who asked for Andy/Nile, a fight ending in a kiss.

Andy’s smile glints sharp as she tosses the staff lightly from one hand to another. Her eyes are glittering, and it leaves Nile with the same warm ache in the pit of her stomach as it always does.

She slaps her libido down firmly. Now is _not_ the time. “I thought you weren’t supposed to let go of your weapon, ever.”

Andy’s smile widens. “Who told you that?”

“Joe. Makes sense, though. If there’s a second where you’re not holding it, there’s a second where someone can get it away from you. Right?”

“Right,” Andy says, and tosses the staff again, sending it upward with a fancy twist before catching it with her other hand, without even looking. “You think you can get it away from me?”

And the thing is, Nile knows she’s being baited. Andy isn’t particularly subtle, never has been. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t _work._

She tilts her head, mirroring the careless arrogance in Andy’s posture.

“Do my best,” she says, and charges.

It’s a more skilled attack than it would have been a year ago, but she’s still not surprised when Andy sidesteps neatly, landing a hard blow on her thigh that makes her leg muscles go numb for a brief moment. Nile staggers, recovers, and spins with her staff up in time to counter Andy’s next blow, and then they’re fighting for real. Andy doesn’t pull her blows and Nile is learning not to—learning to power through that automatic flinch of hitting hard enough to break bone. In some ways it’s easier with Andy, because she has never once landed a hit that Andy didn’t let her land.

 _Easier_ is maybe the wrong word for it. It’s a different kind of hard, that’s all. But Nile has always liked a challenge.

It doesn’t take long before she’s sweating and breathless, her braids starting to come loose from the knot at the nape of her neck to swing around her face. Andy is breathing hard, flushed and grinning as she parries the blow that Nile aims at her ribs and then spins, hooking her staff around Nile’s in some kind of quick twisting move that Nile can’t follow. The end of it lands on her wrist hard enough to make her hand go loose, and then Andy jerks her staff up, sending Nile’s staff spinning out of her hands to clatter across the floor, kicks her legs out from under her, and tackles her flat on her back. It takes all of ten seconds, and Nile knows that she’s only lasted this long because Andy was letting her.

It’s hard to feel too bad about that when Andy is pinning her down, breathless and beautiful from inches away.

“You’re getting better,” she says, and Nile lets her head thunk back against the floor. She is so damn glad that her bruises will heal on their own.

“Thanks a lot.”

“I mean it,” Andy says insistently. She still hasn’t pulled back. All of the others are like that—casually physical, careless about personal space in a way that Nile still has trouble getting her head around. She thinks if it were anyone else, it might bother her, but she—really doesn’t mind being pinned like this under Andy’s weight. She really doesn’t mind at all. “You’re doing great.”

“You sound like my mother,” Nile retorts, but she’s grinning. It doesn’t sting anymore to say that kind of thing. She’s beginning, in some small way, to heal on the inside, too.

Andy’s laughter is a huff of warm air on Nile’s chin, her strong hands warm on Nile’s shoulders where she’s pinning her down. “Just for that—”

She breaks off, and Nile finds herself flipped again, spun onto her front with Andy’s hand pulling her arms back, Andy’s thighs pinning her in place. Nile jerks away instinctively, then winces. “Okay, ow.”

“Like I said, you’ve improved a lot,” Andy says, and she’s a long line of heat and muscle against Nile’s back and sides. Still laughing, damn it. Nile’s life is so unfair. “Can you get out of this?”

“Without breaking any bones?”

“Whatever works for you,” Andy says agreeably. She doesn’t even bother to ask _whose_ bones Nile was thinking of breaking.

Nile snorts. Her chin and nose is tucked against Andy’s neck, which is sweaty and smells like the kind of strong soap that could double as paint stripper. It should not be appealing. The hold Andy has her in doesn’t actually _hurt_ , but there’s no way out of it Nile can see that wouldn’t involve dislocating something. In a real fight, she’s be willing to do it, but she’s not popping her shoulder out of joint for fucking sparring practice, even though that’s probably what Andy is angling for. She’s always after Nile to fully embrace her invulnerability or what the fuck ever.

Nile grimaces into the pointy hinge of Andy’s jaw. And then, suddenly, another idea occurs to her, one which—she thinks—will definitely at least have the element of surprise. She takes a breath, then nibbles at the same spot, opening her mouth to suck Andy’s skin between her teeth.

“Oh, fuck,” Andy says faintly above her, and her limbs go slack for just an instant. Nile surges backward out of her grip, rolling across the floor to get out of range before she stands and hurls herself at Andy, knocking her flat before she can make it up to her feet. This time it’s Andy’s head thunking off the wood floor hard enough to make Nile wince, but she’s laughing, loose-limbed and wide open, as Nile pins her down.

“Weren’t expecting _that_ , were you?” Nile says smugly, to cover up how her heart is pounding.

“Element of surprise,” Andy laughs, “well done,” and then she twists her arms free of Nile’s grip and drags her down into a kiss. Nile goes with it, even though she’s expecting to get flipped onto her back any moment now, but that doesn’t happen. There’s just Andy, her warm strong hands and her lean body and the way she’s still breathing hard into the kiss, her hand curving around the back of Nile’s head to pull her in closer, tilting her head to turn it slick and wet and urgent.

Nile makes a shocked noise in the back of her throat and Andy swallows it. Her leg comes up to hook around the back of Nile’s thigh, but when she rolls her over onto her back it’s gentle, and Nile doesn’t fight it. She goes easily, willingly, letting her hands drift up Andy’s back, hooking her fingers under the hem of her tank top to get at bare skin.

Andy makes a noise against her mouth, then pulls back. She’s grinning, flushed, gorgeous. “Okay. I think practice is over.”

“Yeah?” Nile asks, breathless. “Who won?”

Andy kisses her again, then unfolds gracefully to her feet. She leans down to offer Nile a hand up, too, and doesn’t let go once she’s standing. “You know, I think we can call it a tie.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] First Blood](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29430897) by [greedy_dancer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/greedy_dancer/pseuds/greedy_dancer)




End file.
